Fraud wrecks Assemblies of God Church

encomuim magazine
-Why its leaders are fighting dirty
Things have fallen apart in the once revered Assemblies of God Church over fierce leadership tussle, fraud and financial misappropriation of church funds. The crises rocking the ministry turned messier on Tuesday, June 24, 2014, when loyalists of the sacked General Superintendent of the church, Rev. Prof. Paul Emeka clashed with loyalists of the acting General Superintendent, Rev. Chidi Okoroafor and locked him out of the church.

The church, ENCOMIUM Weekly reliably gathered, has not known peace since few members of the executive committee referred to as ambassadors of the kingdom ousted the General Superintendent on March 6, 2014, on allegation of defrauding the church to the tune of N450 million. They suspended Rev. Paul Emeka, over allegation of misconduct, highhandedness, financial misappropriation and sundry matters.
The general committee of the church henceforth appointed the Assistant General Superintendent, Rev. (Dr.) Chidi Okoroafor, as the acting General Superintendent to pilot the affairs of the church in line with the church’s constitution and bye-laws.
A letter dated March 6, 2014, entitled, “Re: Rev. Prof. Paul Emeka, former General Superintendent, Assemblies of God, Nigeria” and signed Rev. Dr. John Ikoni, Rev. Dr. Chidi Okoroafor and Rev. Dr. Vincent Alaje; the General Secretary, Acting General Superintendent and General Treasurer respectively, stated, “Please, be informed that at the meeting of the General Committee, Assemblies of God, Nigeria held on March 6 in the Conference Hall of the National Secretariat, Enugu, the General Committee suspended the Rev. Prof. Paul Emeka from membership of Assemblies of God, Nigeria.
“Rev. Prof. Paul Emeka who until this development served as General Superintendent of Assemblies of God, Nigeria, therefore ceases to function in any of the duties assigned to the Office of the General Superintendent in the constitution and bye-Laws of the General Council of Assemblies of God, Nigeria, also with effect from today”, the letter added.
The church also accused the former General Superintendent of being autocratic, financially reckless, power drunk and above all taking the church to court, which is tantamount to tarnishing its image and bringing it to public ridicule.
Among other matters leveled against the suspended General Superintendent included withdrawal of N200 million from the Pension Fund without due process, spending N250 million for the alleged acquisition of a property in Germany without the approval of the Executive Committee (EC), false claims to proprietorship of the Evangel University, false claim to the rank of professor, and use of the same after his name with the embarrassment to the church, among others.”
In a swift reaction, the suspended GS has described his ordeal as the handiwork of his enemies in the church as well as a political and ethnic gang-up against him, noting that such blackmail was aimed at tarnishing his image but believed that he would surmount his perceived detractors.
The embattled General Superintendent of Assemblies of God Church, Rev Prof Paul Emeka had alleged that over N150 million was looted by the Rev Chidi Okoroafor led illegal executives just within six weeks of his purported suspension and that by now it is clocking close to half a billion naira.
Rev Paul Emeka claimed that within six weeks of his purported suspension, the usurpers have already looted about N150 million and even went as far as forging his signature on a cheque of N9 million.
According to the cleric, “These illegal men have looted and spent more than N150 million of the general council funds. They keep holding these illegal meetings with the district superintendents and treasurers from zone to zone, telling them how they would remit money to them.
“They have opened new accounts because I kept blocking any existing accounts I discovered. “They are mercilessly dealing with the general council funds with which they service their numerous lawyers and members of their think-tank whom they quarter in various places to keep manipulating the church and the court with lies. They even forged my signature on a cheque of N9 million on March 18. Thank God that the bank alerted me promptly.”
Rev. Emeka dismissed his suspension as illegal and unconstitutional. Implying vindictive motive behind his purported removal, he said that, “Suspension as a form of discipline in the Assemblies of God is designed to serve as a spiritual and holy purpose and not to achieve political and vindictive purpose. The purported suspension pronounced on me on March 6, 2014, was the meanest exercise of discipline. It was motivated by hatred, god-fatherism, envy and opportunism. It fell short of a legal general committee.”
Rev. Emeka in his statement made available to ENCOMIUM Weekly on Sunday, June 29, 2014, believed that there was no quorum for the meetings neither were the right participants in attendance, implying that the committee that suspended him was an illegal one.
According to him, “The body that pronounced that suspension was a wrong one. The so-called general committee did not have up to twenty unit heads out of about 105 unit heads. In other words, it didn’t have a quorum. In the roll call, according to the video, majority of the districts were absent. Observers were used as voting members. This was in addition to the fact that the process was wrong. The GS is the only one authorized by the constitution to call for a General Committee.”
Clarifying further the cleric said, “The Ambassadors of the Kingdom filled the hall. The ambassadors were to participate only if their districts delegated them to come. But being ambassadors did not automatically qualify them to be there and do business. Rather, they were supposed to be there as a party having a case with the GS.
“Unfortunately, it was the ambassadors who wrote petitions against me, they judged me, convicted me, condemned me and punished me. They moved the motions to nail me. These were the same people who signed the petition against me.”
Rev. Emeka decried the unholy involvement of the immediate past General Superintendent, Rev. (Dr.) Charles Osueke in the plot to unseat him and described the entire plot as “the unholiest plot of the century. It was anything but holy. It was driven by hate, a long-held desire to revenge a perceived a personal wrong. It was driven by a passionate desire to make good his plot to enthrone his god-son Chidi Okoroafor.”
Clarifying further on his claims the cleric said, “It is necessary to inform you, according to their video tape, that even before coming to the meeting, they had decided what to do to me, and the least of these evil plots was to step me down. This they decided to do even when they had not heard from me. During the meeting, they used votes to decide whether I would be stepped down or be suspended. In Assemblies of God, we do not use votes to decide the suspension of a person.
“You cannot decide the punishment of an adulterer, a thief, etc. with votes. Therefore, if I really had sinned and they knew it, there wouldn’t have been any need to vote to decide which discipline to mete out on me.”
Rev. Paul Emeka alleged that his travails began when he decided to introduce financial propriety into the system. He decried a situation whereby in Evangel University, within the first month of operation brought a salary bill of N6 million and in the second month the salary was jerked to N9 million by the third month it escalated to N13 million, even when a student population of 73 does not justify such increment.
He claimed to have complained that they were employing staff for the university without due consultation to the point that 135 staff were serving 73 students within a few months of operation and his complaints was misinterpreted as disloyalty to the status quo. Rev. Paul Emeka also believed that his proposal to increase the pension of retired pastors of the church brought him in conflict with an interest that wants their retired pastors to continue to suffer.
He wondered why they preferred to use pastor’s fund to run offices rather than increase pension to pastors. According to him “As at last year, the pastors fund generated N2.5 billion from the time that scheme started, all that had been paid to the pastors was only N123 million in 16 years, up to N300 million and more was spent on office.
The purpose of that scheme was not to run the office or other things but to help our pastors in retirement but many of them are suffering and we felt free to our conscience to allow them in that state and pay lip service to our holiness. “
Information available to ENCOMIUM Weekly revealed that the crises had degenerated to a legal action and we confirmed that the issue is currently before the Enugu and Abakaliki courts. Also a petition had been filed by the church to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Consequently, the crises rocking the Assemblies of God Church, Nigeria took another dimension on Tuesday, June 24, 2014, as church members resisted an attempt by the Acting General Superintendent, Chidi Okoroafor-led executive to hold its meeting at the church premises.
Members of the church, led by pastors drawn from Enugu and its environs who arrived the venue of the meeting as early as 7:00 a.m. had locked the entrances of the branch at Isiagu Street, Uwani, on getting wind of the meeting.
Displaying placards, some of which read: There should be no illegal meeting here, Away with illegal executive committee, Ochu Isaac must go, Assemblies of God Church is not for sale, We want justice and peace, among others, the protesters vowed to occupy the premises until night falls.
They also invited the police and other security agencies to ensure none of the executive members gained access to the premises.
It was gathered that the meeting was called to brief members why their General Superintendent (GS), Rev. Prof Paul Emeka, was allegedly suspended on March 6, this year by the executive committee members of the church.
Meanwhile, the Okoroafor-led group, which had arrived the venue in company of soldiers, retreated on sighting rampaging members with placards.
Efforts made to speak with Okoroafor proved abortive. But the South-East Media Co-ordinator of the church, Rev Uchenna Stanley Ago, who spoke to us said they decided to embark on a peaceful demonstration following what they perceived as “injustice” going on in the church, stressing that the Okoroafor-led group had decided to throw caution to the wind.
He said: “You cannot do things one-sided because even when you do it, it will spark off crisis. Everybody has its own fundamental human rights of worship, speech and association and that is why members are saying no, that they will stay here till night falls to ensure that this meeting does not hold.
“This gathering today is because of the chaotic situation we found ourselves in this church right from March 6, 2014. A group of people gathered and called themselves executive committee and held a kangaroo meeting where they suspended our General Superintendent. They have been touring the whole federation and any chapter they visit, they will tell them what the General Superintendent did and why they suspended him without giving him a fair hearing. Now, they decided to come to Enugu, which is the headquarters of the Assemblies of God, Nigeria, and we said no that we wouldn’t like them to come because coming here will bring problem.
“People are everywhere saying lock the gate and that the meeting should not hold. Any day they want to come, while coming, they should come with the General Superintendent and his group so that when they sit, we will hear from both parties and he will be given opportunity to defend himself. We look at the entire situation as injustice and denial of fundamental human rights. This matter is in court and the court granted the GS status quo ante bellum that everybody should sheathe his sword until the court of competent jurisdiction will now say what should be and these people are still violating the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by trampling upon the court order and are moving about anyhow. That is why you see what is happening here.”
He stated that what was happening in the church was bad, stressing that until the two parties are brought to a roundtable, peace would continue to elude the church.